The present invention relates to devices for monitoring and controlling industrial processes, and more particularly, to a keypad annunciator graphical user interface for presenting process control system alarm data, and for providing a flexible and intuitive means by which an operator may acknowledge alarms and take corrective action.
Modern industrial processes are becoming increasingly automated and complex. Such processes, whether involving the smelting of steel or the generation of nuclear power, are typically overseen from a centralized location by a process engineer or operator, who monitors data from hundreds, or even thousands, of sensors distributed throughout a facility. Sensors measuring voltage, current, power consumption, magnetic or electric field strength, temperature, pressure, humidityxe2x80x94the list is virtually endlessxe2x80x94can be part of a modern process control system. Sensor data is used to evaluate the suitability of raw materials, provide feedback data during processing and manufacture, control valves and process flows, ensure the quality of manufactured products, and generate alarms. In particular, sensors can be used to gather data indicative of an alarm state in an process control system.
When an alarm occurs, considerable demands are placed on the process operator, who, confronted with a vast array of data from a vast array of sensors, must respond quickly and effectively to ensure safe and economical operation of the facility. Optimally, when an alarm occurs the operator is immediately alerted. Next, the operator ascertains the location, purpose and significance of the sensor. Typically, there are thousands of pages of documentation describing the operation of the industrial process in question and describing the purpose and significance of the various sensors. After locating and consulting the appropriate portions of the documentation, and perhaps viewing data from other sensors, the operator institutes proper corrective action. The actual scenario, however, is not always optimal, and the operator""s job is at times difficult.
In an earlier era, of simpler, less automated industrial processes, an annunciator wall panel often informed operators of alarms. Individual sensors were essentially hard wired, via relays or other simple circuitry, to individual lamps placed at appropriate locations on a wall-sized schematic of the process. Sensor data out of an acceptable range illuminated a light and sounded a horn. However, technological advances, particularly the advent of computers, have greatly increased the complexity of most industrial processes, as well as increased the burden on the operator charged with oversight of the process. In many cases, the old annunciator panel wall is obsolete and relatively inflexible.
Technological advance has also improved the tools used by the process operator. Video displays run application programs that can, for example, graph process data, display a process graphic (a schematic representation of a portion or of all of an industrial process) or perform a keyword search through documentation. However, not all the tools are significantly improved: the hardware annunciator keyboard (HAK) remains. The HAK is composed of a numeric keypad with adjacent rows of illuminable lights, and can be described as essentially a shrunken version of the annunciator wall panel. An occurrence of a sensor alarm causes a horn to sound and illuminates a key associated with that alarm. The operator acknowledges the alarm and silences the horn by pressing the illuminated key.
The present HAK does not optimally address the needs of an operator charged with overseeing a modem and highly automated modern industrial process. The existing HAK is bulky, costly to produce, difficult to reconfigure, and limited to a number of standard key formats. The HAK warns an operator of all alarms, regardless of severity, in the same mannerxe2x80x94the same horn sounds, and one of several keys, all typically of the same color, illuminates. Adding alarm states to a process control system can require multiple hardware annunciator keyboards, as keys are not easily added to an existing keyboard, further adding to system costs.
Accordingly, a need exists for a more economical and versatile alarm interface that relatively quickly and effectively communicates alarm states, facilitates timely and proper corrective action, and complements the graphical tools for video display already at the operator""s disposal.
It is an object of the invention to provide a more versatile keypad annunciator that allows an operator to manage more effectively and efficiently a modem complex industrial process control system.
It is a another object of the present invention to provide a keypad annunciator that more effectively presents alarm data.
It is a further object of the present invention to reduce the cost of producing a keypad annunciator.
An additional object of the invention is to provide an operator-configurable keypad annunciator that an operator may readily configure to better ensure acknowledgment and appropriate operator response to the occurrence of an alarm state.
The invention achieves the foregoing and other objects by providing a keypad annunciator graphical user interface for displaying an interactive keypad annunciator on a monitor display screen. The keypad annunciator display is interactive, i.e., a user may enter commands and otherwise direct the process control system by selecting elements of the keypad display, such as a key, with a pointing and selecting input device, such as a mouse. The keypad annunciator graphical user interface, or KAGUI, is also readily configurable by a user such that presentation of alarm data and of actions initiated by selection of the key may be tailored to better manage the process control system. The KAGUI complements other window-based tools at the operator""s disposal, allowing use of other windows, yet providing an enhanced ability to alert an operator of an occurrence of an alarm state. The term xe2x80x9calarm state,xe2x80x9d as used herein, refers to a state of the process control system determined as a function of system inputs that include sensor data. A normal alarm state is one in which no alarms are occurring (i.e., sensor data and other inputs indicate that the process is operating in a normal or acceptable manner). In comparison, when there is a potential problem with the process, an alarm is generated in order to quickly notify the operator, and a particular alarm state is said to have occurred.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a key of the KAGUI is associated with an alarm state or states of the process control system such that occurrence of the alarm state causes the key to change its appearance. Typically, the key changes color and blinks. The invention also provides for a system wherein the operator chooses a particular key to associate with a particular alarm state and defines the alarm states.
Further aspects of the invention provide for user interaction. In particular, the system provides an input element that is selectable and acknowledges a key in an alarm state by selecting the key with a pointing device. Selection of a key typically silences the horn and displays a process graphic, i.e., a schematic representation of the area of the facility where the alarm is occurring. Such a process graphic can include summary data on the sensor or sensors generating the alarm.
The KAGUI is not likely to be the only application using the display monitor of a process control system, and at times other windows and GUIs are likely to obscure the KAGUI. These other windows and GUIs can create confusionxe2x80x94a user can open several windows simultaneously, perhaps temporarily losing track of other important windows. Alarm data are too important to be ignored, however, even temporarily. Accordingly, to provide the advantages of a KAGUI operating in a modem application environment, yet ensure proper presentation of alarm data, the invention incorporates several features.
According to one feature of the present invention, occurrence of an alarm state associated with a key of a particular keypad automatically causes that keypad to appear as the topmost window in the display.
According to another feature of the present invention, a user may choose an option whereby a keypad annunciator floats on top of the display as a high priority window, i.e., a window with a priority higher than a majority of other windows.
According to yet another feature, the invention provides a dynamic icon, representing a minimized keypad annunciator, that changes appearance to indicate occurrence of any alarm state associated with selected keys. The icon normally appears in a static state; however, upon occurrence of an alarm state associated with the selected keys, the icon appears in a dynamic state, exhibiting a selected motion. The icon can also simply change from one static display state, indicating no alarms, to a second static display state, indicating an alarm. The icon may be configured to appear on the display upon the occurrence of an alarm state, or to float on the display as a high priority icon.
According to yet a further feature of the present invention, the KAGUI incorporates an interactive compact visual representation of alarm data. This compact visual representation or display of alarm state information is referred to herein as a panel manager. The panel manager is typically larger than an icon but smaller than a full keypad annunciator display.
In one aspect of the present invention, the panel manager comprises unique graphical elements, such as buttons, that are each associated with a keyboard annunciator. The graphical element changes visual appearance, e.g., changes color and/or blinks, upon occurrence of an alarm state associated with a selected key or keys of the particular keypad annunciator represented by the button. Selection of the button with a pointing device, such as a pen or mouse, causes the appropriate keypad annunciator to appear on the display. As usual, the alarm state occurrences are accompanied by the sounding of a horn or generation of whatever audible stimulus is associated with that alarm state by the operator.
In another aspect of the present invention, the buttons of a panel manager employ a selectable third visual state to indicate existence of an alarm state that has been acknowledged by an operator.
In a further aspect of the present invention, the panel manager comes to the front as a topmost window upon the occurrence of an alarm state associated with a key on a keypad of which the panel manager is a compact visual representation. The panel manager may also simply be made a display with a higher priority than most other windows of the display. Because of its compact size, placing the panel manager at the forefront of the display does not unduly interfere with the operator""s working with other windows.
The foregoing aspect of the invention regarding presentation of alarm states, particularly the dynamic icon and the panel manager, allows an operator to fully employ a multi-window, multi-application control workstation yet be highly assured of timely and effective communication of the occurrence of an alarm state.
The keyboard annunciator graphical user interface communicates to an operator the alarm status of a process control system. A typical industrial process control system is highly distributed and typically uses computer processors of different manufacture, often running different operating systems, located at a distance from each other. Communication between computers is often over a network. Interprocess communication (IPC) is therefore the lifeblood of the modem and highly automated process control system. Sensors can communicate with processors, processors can communicate with each other, and many of the foregoing can communicate with the control workstation. Network communication, however, is not always reliable, and alarm data transmission to the KAGUI can be interrupted. Nevertheless, the KAGUI should accurately represent at all times the alarm state of the process control system.
In a healthy industrial process, alarm states do not regularly occur and the communication means for transmitting alarm data are not constantly in use and thus are not constantly tested. Accordingly, the invention provides apparatus and methods to maximize probability that the alarm state of the process control system represented by the keyboard annunciator graphical user interface is correct.
According to one feature of the present invention, xe2x80x9cverificationxe2x80x9d messages are constantly transmitted over a communication path to verify its continued existence. Acknowledgment signals are sent by a receiver of an IPC message to the sender. Under normal conditions, that is, when the communication path is functional properly and open, constantly sending verification signals results in constantly receiving acknowledgment signals, which confirm the continued existence of the path. The process operator is typically informed of the status of the communication path by a display element of the KAGUI. The display element typically has two visual states, one to indicate successful transmission of verification signals and another to indicate unsuccessful transmission of verification signals, and hence a break in the communication channel. Note that the content of the verification message is typically irrelevant. It is the sending of the messages on a regular basis that serves to verify the continued existence of the IPC path.
According to another aspect of the present invention, means are provided, such as a selectable button on a toolbar, for an operator to resynchronize the alarm state information possessed and displayed by a keyboard annunciator graphical user interface with that of the process control system. Resynchronization refers to a download of alarm state information from a process control system to a KAGUI to refresh the data presented by the KAGUI so that the KAGUI represents, as accurately as possible, the alarm state of the process control system.
In yet a further aspect of the present invention, the KAGUI automatically maintains synchronization of alarm data by, upon detecting a failed transmission xe2x80x9cverification signal,xe2x80x9d reestablishing the communication path, such as a pipe, between the KAGUI and the process control system and retransmitting all alarm state information from the process control system to the KAGUI.
In an additional aspect of the present invention, a server process is established to route alarm state data from a state table maintained by a process control system to a client process operative with the KAGUI. Such a server process can serve multiple clients.
The KAGUI can be configured in many ways to enhance presentation of, and response to, alarm state information. Configuration options useful to an operator are therefore briefly outlined.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the KAGUI appears on a monitor as a traditional hardware keyboard annunciator. A numeric keypad is situated adjacent rows of alarm keys.
In an additional aspect of the present invention, the layout of the keys, that is, the number of rows and columns, as well as the overall number of keys of the keypad annunciator are selectable. Multiple keypad annunciators are also possible. Multiple lines of label information are displayable on the surface of each of the keys of the keypad annunciator. Furthermore, the visual appearance of a key for indicating non-occurrence of a alarm state, occurrence of an alarm state, and an acknowledged alarm are selectable. Typically, a key not in alarm appears as a first solid color; a key in alarm appears as a second color and blinking; and a key indicating an acknowledged alarm appears in the second color but does not blink.
An audible stimulus typically alerts the operator to a key in an alarm state. However, all alarm states are not created equal; some may involve potential injury to personnel while others may indicate a simple and relatively easily correctable xe2x80x9cglitchxe2x80x9d in the industrial process. Accordingly, the invention allows an operator to select a unique sound to indicate priority of an alarm.